Written by: Lynn Cadet
Edited by: Lillian Castro
TL; DR: Nindohost provides web hosting and domain services for Moroccan-based businesses and users. Its solutions are affordable and secure, and cater to the specific needs of its customers. Users can leverage its website builder to create a website from scratch or its web design service for specialized assistance. We spoke with Nabil Babache, CEO of Nindohost, about its pioneering roots, tailored solutions, and domain services.
The first connection to the internet from Morocco was on November 15, 1995. Only a few years prior, the country had launched its first data transmission services: Maghripac and the digital network service MARNIS. The latter digitized telephone networks and integrated services such as the telephone, fax, audio, images, and data transmission.
Since 1995, Morocco has had public access to internet networks. But, while steady, its internet penetration has been slow. Its biggest leap in internet penetration took place between 2005 and 2010, when the rate of the country’s population with access to the internet skyrocketed from 15% to 52%. Today, Morocco has the highest internet penetration rate in Africa, with 91%.
Morocco’s journey with the web has come a long way. But in some ways, it is still in its infancy. Nindohost is a Moroccan-based web hosting company that understands this journey well. For almost two decades, Nindohost has offered hosting and domain services to the people of Morocco.
“Our goal is to serve individuals, small entrepreneurs, and companies here in Morocco that would like to have an online presence or register a domain name and to see their website come alive,” said Nabil Babache, CEO of Nindohost.
Nindohost has helped lead the way for hosting in the region. Its services have supported local businesses and entrepreneurs and allowed them to set up stable and well-designed websites for their visitors and customers. The Nindohost team continues to respond to customer needs and increase exposure for hosting in Morocco.
Powering the Moroccan Hosting Industry
Nindohost was established in 2006, during Morocco’s first major rise in internet usage. At the time, the hosting market was small, and internet penetration was about 20%. Nindohost became one of the first companies to provide web hosting and domain services.
“We have been in business since 2006 and have hired people here in Morocco. The market was very small when we started, and we also had very few domains. So we started offering hosting at an affordable price,” said Nabil.
Today, Nindohost has more than 10,000 active hosting customers. According to Nabil, Nindohost also is also registering 20% to 22% of the new daily registered domains. Nabil recommends local businesses use the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) extension, .ma, for their digital presence.
“.ma is an extension specifically built for Morocco, so it’s the ccTLD for Morocco. Today, we have about 120,000 of those domain names registered. The main benefits are SEO for local companies,” said Nabil.
With a .ma extension, businesses can show Google directly that they are Moroccan-based, which makes them more reachable to Moroccan markets on search engines. Another benefit of using .ma is that users can discover more naming options and combinations than they would with more scarce TLDs, such as .com and .net.
Nindohost also distinguishes itself by offering something other big hosting companies can’t: localization.
“We have clients that prefer to work with local companies. They prefer to pick up the phone and call a local support team to talk with them in their language or dialect during working hours, whether in Arabic, French, or English. We’re trying to leverage our limited support and proximity with our clients here,” said Nabil.
Web-Building Services for eCommerce and Beyond
Nindohost offers everything from web hosting and domain registration to email and managed services. Offering these solutions has enabled local businesses and users to gain access to powerful web hosting for their web projects. Users can also leverage its website builder to get started with their websites.
“It’s a straightforward website builder. They’re guided through an onboarding process where they can describe which type of industry they are in. And we generate a model website for them. It’s a small website with licensed images and a blog of contents that they can personalize and manage as they want,” said Nabil.
Its Do It Yourself website builder helps users create their websites from scratch with an upgraded foundation based on their industry of choice. However, since Nindohost primarily serves businesses, it had to create a service that could respond to their diverse needs. Many business owners don’t have the time or ability to build websites from scratch.
“Many customers asked us if we could build a website for them, so we launched another service called DIFM, Do It For Me. We have one of our designers do the website building. Once the website is up online, we will maintain it,” said Nabil.
The client pays an upfront fee for the website building and answers a questionnaire to ensure Nindohost’s designers understand their vision. Customers can also pay a monthly fee for Nindohost to maintain their site, which includes any changes the client would like to make.
Nindohost also helps users with eCommerce challenges. “We work with them closely to make sure their website doesn’t go down during campaigns. We can temporarily increase their resources. We also have people trained for eCommerce questions to help customers manage their projects online,” said Nabil.
Giving Customers What They Need: Security and Affordability
Nindohost is all about solving user needs. The team understands the Moroccan market well. So it knows that its customers are looking for affordability.
“Affordability is key. The majority of clients here in Morocco are clients who are looking for price and only price. We’re trying to give them affordable hosting so they can start online and have everything included,” said Nabil.
Web hosting is an essential commodity for many users. Nindohost helps customers find good hosting at the affordable price they want. The Nindohost team also makes sure to include all the essentials in its hosting plans. It may charge extra for other add-ons, such as specialized infrastructure or additional disk storage, but it offers security and stability to everyone.
“We decided to include everything related to security. Users don’t have to pay any extra for backups or SSL security. We have Imunify360 and CloudLinux included in all packages. These are non-negotiable. And we have been growing year over year,” said Nabil.
